Recently read: Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz: the Nazi Assault on Humanity

This book, a memoir, is terrifying to read for its insight into the unspeakable horrors humanity is capable of doing. Levi was a young man in 1943, a Jew living in his native Italy where he was a chemist. Deported by the fascists, he was sent to Auschwitz. The book is short, but powerful, as we read his recounting of life there. He does not rely on flowery prose, nor loaded words—he doesn’t need to. His writing is almost matter-of-fact as he describes the daily routine, the bartering of goods and services to survive, the hierarchy of the prisoners, the guards, the new arrivals, and the disappearances. After the war ended, Levi returned to his home town of Turin, where he spent the rest of his life as a writer, as well as returning to his original career as a chemist. The edition I read ends with a 1986 interview (the year before he died) with Levi by Phillip Roth, which provides additional insight at the distance of more than 50 years.